02 Mar 2025

A 55-year-old senior wildlife warden stationed in Bobonong was last week trampled and killed by a charging elephant they meant to eliminate.

The officer was amongst the five charged with the responsibility of killing the elephant that had encroached human spaces at Nkolodane, south of Mathathane, from the wildlife management area in Tuli.

Baines Drift station commander, Superintendent Oneetse Gagogosha said that all the five officers had service guns and shot at the elephant from outside their official vehicle, but the jumbo animal reportedly kept charging until it trampled upon and killed the officer in question.

Mr Gagogosha put Mathathane and the peripheries on high alert as the elephant is reportedly still alive and extremely dangerous.

It was only after trampling upon their colleague that the four other officers aborted the elephant-killing mission and rushed their colleague to Bobonong Primary Hospital where he was certified dead upon arrival.

A first incident ever since assuming duties as the head of Baines Drift police station, Mr Gagogosha said that officers reportedly unsuccessfully attempted at killing the elephant on February 24. They then spent the whole of February 25 searching for the animal in vain.

“It is said that they shot at it on the February 24 but never killed it. They then went to Bobonong to get more firepower whereupon they searched for it on the February 25 without success.

They found it in the afternoon of February 26 and the shooting ensued until the officer unfortunately lost his life” Supt. Gagogosha said.  ENDS